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sexism

A friend of mine posted this photo on my Facebook timeline today. When I was in the Marine Corps, I was subjected to wearing the awful female blues.

The above photo is of me at my Marine Corps Ball in 2007.

I would have killed to wear something that didn’t make females look like a flight attendant, seriously. When most people think of the Marine Corps dress blues, they think of the male dress blues. They are very symbolic, but females get reduced to something that resembles a flight attendant uniform. How does this reflect on the military’s view on women? Not very highly. I think this unisex dress blues is a good thing. I think it will help reduce the sexism that is rampant within the military, especially the Marine Corps. I should have known better, but I read some of the comments associated with this post made by other Facebook users.

“Wtf. What’s wrong with the uniforms we have?! Especially if its tailored more to the females. Why make us look like men? We aren’t men.”

“We are supposed to maintain a “feminine” look and this won’t meet that standard at all.”

The above posts are from females in the Marine Corps. The sexism is so ingrained that even they believe they worth less than men. And then, of course, there is the male macho bullshit complaining about females in the infantry, not being held to the same standards, etc. There is also the argument that traditions are traditions, and they should not be broken. And lastly, that the government is wasting money. Wait a second, last I checked, I had to purchase my own dress blues… so if anything, Marines are wasting their money, but that’s besides the point.

My opinion is that a Marine is a Marine, whether male or female. We don’t wear different combat uniforms, so why have different dress uniforms. We all had to go through the same training. Why can’t we all be afforded the same respect in uniform instead of glorifying one sex while degrading the other.

If I were in the Marine Corps now, I’d jump at the opportunity to wear these, but hey… let’s not get into the fact that I can’t be due to my transgender status even if I wanted to, which I don’t. I served my time and put up with enough bullshit that is still being perpetrated as can be seen through the comments I read on Facebook.